/s = is a foreshortened form of a fake HTML tag. An HTML Tag is opened with < tag > and closed with < /tag >. So /s is a foreshoretened form of < /s >. The S, in this case, stands for sarcasm. It means that the preceding post was made in sarcastic jest.

There seems to be a divide in our fan base as to whether MSU is really our rival. In-state Michigan fans consider the MSU rivalry only a step below Ohio. Out of state fans, however, tend to look at MSU as a school that we dislike, but as a far lesser rival. I guess you can say that Michigan / MSU rivalry is something of an instate rivalry, but not nearly as much outside of state borders. (obviously, I am generalizing a bit here).

My personal view, despite being from out of state is that Sparty is a rival, but more because they hate us so obsessively than because they are a team that we compete with. I know that they are coming off of a few good years against us, but historically, they beat us about as often as purdue or Minnesota. To me, a rivalry implies teams that are at least oddly matched more often than not, who battle for the same recruits, who respect each other despite being on opposite sides and who recognize each other as standing in the way of winning something big. Look at the Michigan - Ohio rivalry. Setting aside a few recent years, we are traditionally evenly matched, we battle for the big Midwest recruits, there is a respect amongst the hatred and often we battle for b10 championships. Now compare MSU. Setting aside the rr era, we historically dominate them. Until 2008, they were viewed as nothing more than a conference cupcake game on the difficulty scale. As for recruiting, while we compete geographically, again historically, Michigan and Ohio had their choice of Michigan talent, and MSU took what was left. Sure, that changed when rr was here, but it is going back and it will continue to do so as we keep reeling in talent and MSU reverts to their mean. As for respect, there is none in this rivalry. We do as a fanbase look at MSU as the scuzzy, kind of stupid punk little brothers and they look at a us jealously as arrogant, pompous self-important (yet successful) older siblings. Finally, historically, our games with MSU mean nothing - there is no more on the line than there would be when we play any other non-Ohio b10 school.

So, a rivalry, but only in the local sense. Just my view as an out of state fan.

MSU's insistence on us being their rival makes it so that they are. It's why 'lil bro works so well- we are their biggest rival and they aren't ours (very little brotherish). It's almost sad- at least now that we won't play ND every year they maybe will jump them to be our number two rival making it less pathetic for MSU...
What are some other examples of teams whose biggest rivals don't recipricate?

I agree. It's not MSU winning that makes them a rival. It is because of the never ending smack talk that occurs from their fan base whenever they do win a game, even if was 5 years ago, whether it be in euchre, chess or football. Thus, little brother.

Our new 2nd rival is: Nebraska -- that team we have to beat every year to be able to play Ohio twice in two weeks.

Agree with the poster above: Hart was right: Sparty is the upstart little brother. They had their few years while we were in turmoil, and will continue to be the little attack dog that puffs up and wins more often than they should (by playing as dirty as they are allowed). However, just as Mike said: sometimes you have to let them think they are getting ahead, just to smack them back down again.

I am not saying that he "ruined everything." I am just referencing the record during his tenure, which was very bad. Before he came, we routinely beat MSU, losing the occasional game here or there. During his tenure, and in the year following it, we lost 4 straight to MSU.

Just stating a fact, not assigning blame. If you want me to opine on why that happened, I will be glad to, but that debate is tired and has been done to death.

Can these last few days get any better? Michigan receives a commitment from the # 1 RB in the nation, MSU loses a heartbreaker to Indiana while maintaining they didn't actually lose and it was the refs fault, Michigan beats Illinois convincingly on the road to get to first place in the big ten and # 1 in the nation.

information. I really can't speak for any sites except Rivals and ESPN, and in this case, I'm specifically referring to Rivals, but they give information about the development of the offensive line, for example, or the situations involving specific recruits, i.e. when and why they might decide for a certain school or our chances for certain high profile recruits.

I mean, wasn't it premium board info that said Poggi was going on an official to Bama and maybe committing? And now they're saying nothing to see here. Which is the one I'm supposed to believe is worth my money?

WHO'S saying how the offensive line is doing? Why am I to believe they have any more insight or any more of an in with the program than various people on sites like this? People who know people in the program only give info out behind paywalls?

They certainly may have recruiting guys who have contact with the recruits who know more of the "why"...but I don't see why one would paywall that info when the vast majority don't care about nothing more than if they say "Michigan" or "someone else." I certainly knew as fast as anyone paying what Derrick Green was announcing.

guy, a good friend, a Nigerian prince, actually, and he'll invest it for us and send us the money to buy the real 40 times. However, he will need your Social Security and bank account numbers to verify who you are, of course.

If you want to know which sites to pay, just check in on any of the number of threads dealing with topic. You'll find a diverse range of opinions from people with access to all of the different sites.

WHO'S saying how the offensive line is doing?

Chris Balas of The Wolverine. Presumably, he has enough journalistic integrity to vet his sources and make sure that they have actual knowledge of the situation. He's staking his reputation on it.

Why am I to believe they have any more insight or any more of an in with the program than various people on sites like this? People who know people in the program only give info out behind paywalls?

They get paid to do it for a living and have been doing so for quite a while. Sure, a few lurkers on here might have connections to the program, but they don't share it and when they do share it, we have no reason to differentiate them from a poster like RDT. Just check the response to any person in the past who has claimed to have 'inside information'. Honestly, how often does Brian have inside information? How often does he choose to share it? With the paysites you get a consistent, vetted source of information. It's certainly not as much information as in the past, but it's still more than the nothing shared here.

They certainly may have recruiting guys who have contact with the recruits who know more of the "why"...but I don't see why one would paywall that info when the vast majority don't care about nothing more than if they say "Michigan" or "someone else." I certainly knew as fast as anyone paying what Derrick Green was announcing.

Paysites don't serve the vast majority of people; they serve a specific subset of an already small group. For those who don't care about anything but the decision, MGoBlog will work fine. For those who like to follow the situation from start to finish, paysites serve a valuable service. For those who like to read interviews with recruits, paysites serve a valuable service. When's the last time Ace posted an original interview with a recruit? How often does he do so? Not to attack Ace, as I do enjoy his writing, but he hasn't exactly provided a fountain of recruiting information.

Sure, you might have been 100% sure at the moment Green announced but the people at Rivals had been saying that Green was going to end up at Michigan for a while. They called Isaac to USC and Garnett to Stanford, among many others.

That's not to say that the paysites are without flaws, however. They can be wrong. They were wrong about Webb, for sure. The mods at Rivals can be dicks. The community over there is not even close to being as great as the community on here.

Look, paysites aren't for everyone. That's fine. But if you have an extra $100 lying around and you like following Michigan athletics, I'd say buy a subscription. Even though you don't have a subscription, it doesn't invalidate the value of one.

You don't even need to spend $100.00 or anywhere close. Every few months someone posts that magazine deal. I paid around $12.00 for an entire 3 years of ESPN Insider (technically I get the magazine too). It was a no brainer for me. I'm sure it will come around again. Once someone sees it, please post it and everyone can jump on it if they want. I agree it's worth it especially at that price.

His reputation around her must be getting better. And when someone at one of the sites says "Michigan leads for Green" it becomes public really fast.

If one loves the every guy says the same thing interviews with players most of which won't be coming here, and it's worth the money to them, whatever floats their boat. You're right, it's whatever people put value on. But the result too often is things like the OP where they seem to act like we need to pay for basic info or else we're missing out on something, which just too often comes off like sombody is justifying the expenditure to themselves (though not in your case).

but Seth did say in the mod sticky that he checked out this thread (although I don't know if he can see the original either). For the record, check this thread for questions about premium information. Brian uses these guidelines to sum up his policy on premium info:

You might as well relate the gist of some paywalled content. It'll come out anyway.

Do not C&P. Rephrase.

Don't relate every last detail. Leave the paywalled content some value. In this case, "it looks good for Dee Hart and we should be getting good news relatively soon" would probably work.

If you do so, provide a link. Don't just say "Site X says." The link will draw some traffic, may spur conversions, and will help the site with search engine rankings.

I'll leave it to you to see if you followed through. Please take care to look, though, it's one of the more important board rules.

The two posts about Poggi from days ago were in reference to 247's site saying he had an official on the 18th to Bama, and in reference to paywalled info posters.

It wasn't much to go on at all, and the Mich fanbase on this site freaked out.

Neg me if you want but I didn't think there really was anything much to go on, the only thing that was odd was all the tweeting from poggis "dad" (I'm not sure if it was ever confirmed like it was really poggi's dad, but it sounds like it was).

Well the information itself is what shouldn't be posted if it's a concern about duplicating material, not who reported it. And secondly, I have a sub to WolverineNation (only one I have; followed Tom over there). And I haven't seen anything that posted there confirming the twitter account isn't real other than some random poster (it is possible I missed it) Hence why I inquired to the authorship; I'm trying to discern between random internet postings and legitimate journalists.

The future of America. That's what you get for giving kids everything in the world that will make them soft little fudge balls. Video games, processed food, cable television, shortened recess, school buses, etc.

The effects of parents believing you should let your kids eat crap all day from junk food to McDonalds and sit on their asses behind computer monitors and tv's......or it could simply be the result of Spartan offspring....either is a viable answer.

I just read a thread 60 seconds ago on Wolverine Nation saying this same stuff. Maybe the thread was deleted because of some things the posters were saying, but TomVH was saying the same stuff in the thread I just read.

ESPN.com has pretty crummy message boards in terms of navigation and the software they use, so it could just be an error that you didn't see it. I just read the thread on there. Also, I may come off as a dick by saying this, but I am pretty sure what the OP did here is against the Terms of Use policy for ESPN M Den...ya know, taking premium information and posting it somewhere else. Just saying.

Hello everyone, sorry new to site, but I listen to Sam Webb in the morning and he addressed Poggi situation and he said that he had spoken to his dad recently in Orlando, FL and his dad said that (Can't remember it word for word but you can listen to it here stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=901&c=4701&f=949391 and it's called "Recruiting Round UP") he does business in Alabama and that one of the kids he checks up on is at Alabama and he said that Henry would possibly go with him because he too has friends and teammates that go to Alabama and they stated that was pretty much it. I dont know if anything has changed since this morning but I think before any of us jump up into any conclusion we gotta wait and not panic. Just remember how we were concerned we were about Derrick Green and we jump to conclusion... So lets just wait and see because I do believe we need him in this class. Thanks everyone!

Hey - just for future reference, I don't think Tom appreciates the information he posts on WolverineNation being re-posted anywhere else. There's a reason pepole who have an account have to pay for it. In fact, I'm surprised this thread hasn't been deleted yet - even if you did link it, you took what he wrote almost to the letter.

It may seem harmless what the OP did, but it is technically against the Terms of Use policy on ESPN and here to post premium info elsewhere. I know Brian, and Tom VH for that matter, are pretty lenient on that stuff but it is against the rules.

I know the OP did not just cut and paste everything and tried to rephrase it, but that doesn't mean he's breaking Terms of Use policy. Saying "Tom VH is saying not to worry about Poggi to Bama" is not breaking the rules, but expanding on everything Tom said like the OP did, is.